Various dehydrogenation processes have been proposed to dehydrogenate non-aromatic six membered ring compounds. These dehydrogenation processes are typically used to convert non-aromatic compounds such as cyclohexane into aromatic compounds such as benzene wherein the aromatic compound produced may be used as a raw material in a subsequent process. Alternatively, the aromatic compound produced may be used as a raw material in the same process which produced the non-aromatic compound to be dehydrogenated. For example, the dehydrogenation of cyclohexane to benzene can be important in the hydroalkylation process for producing cyclohexylbenzene as illustrated below.
Cyclohexylbenzene can be produced from benzene by the process of hydroalkylation or reductive alkylation. In this process, benzene is heated with hydrogen in the presence of a catalyst such that the benzene undergoes partial hydrogenation to produce a reaction intermediate such as cyclohexene which then alkylates the benzene starting material. Thus U.S. Pat. Nos. 4,094,918 and 4,177,165 disclose hydroalkylation of aromatic hydrocarbons over catalysts which comprise nickel- and rare earth-treated zeolites and a palladium promoter. Similarly, U.S. Pat. Nos. 4,122,125 and 4,206,082 disclose the use of ruthenium and nickel compounds supported on rare earth-treated zeolites as aromatic hydroalkylation catalysts. The zeolites employed in these prior art processes are zeolites X and Y. In addition, U.S. Pat. No. 5,053,571 proposes the use of ruthenium and nickel supported on zeolite beta as the aromatic hydroalkylation catalyst. However, these earlier proposals for the hydroalkylation of benzene suffered from the problems that the selectivity to cyclohexylbenzene was low particularly at economically viable benzene conversion rates and that large quantities of unwanted by-products, particularly cyclohexane and methylcyclopentane, were produced.
More recently, U.S. Pat. No. 6,037,513 has disclosed that cyclohexylbenzene selectivity in the hydroalkylation of benzene can be improved by contacting the benzene and hydrogen with a bifunctional catalyst comprising at least one hydrogenation metal and a molecular sieve of the MCM-22 family. The hydrogenation metal is preferably selected from palladium, ruthenium, nickel, cobalt and mixtures thereof and the contacting step is conducted at a temperature of about 50 to 350° C., a pressure of about 100 to 7000 kPa, a hydrogen to benzene molar ratio of about 0.01 to 100 and a weight hourly space velocity (WHSV) of about 0.01 to 100 hr−1. The '513 patent discloses that the resultant cyclohexylbenzene can then be oxidized to the corresponding hydroperoxide and the peroxide decomposed to the desired phenol and cyclohexanone.
Not only does production of impurities such as cyclohexane and methylcyclopentane represent loss of valuable benzene feed, but also overall benzene conversion rates are typically only 40 to 60 wt % so that recycle of unreacted benzene is essential. Unless removed, these impurities will tend to build up in the recycle stream thereby displacing benzene and increasing the production of undesirable by-products. Thus a significant problem facing the commercial application of cyclohexylbenzene as a phenol precursor is removing the cyclohexane and methylcyclopentane impurities in the benzene recycle streams.
One solution to this problem is proposed in U.S. Pat. No. 7,579,511 which describes a process for making cyclohexylbenzene in which benzene undergoes hydroalkylation in the presence of a first catalyst to form a first effluent stream containing cyclohexylbenzene, cyclohexane, methyl cyclopentane, and unreacted benzene. The first effluent stream is then separated into a cyclohexane/methylcyclopentane-rich stream, a benzene-rich stream, and a cyclohexylbenzene-rich stream and the cyclohexane/methylcyclopentane-rich stream is contacted with a second, low acidity, dehydrogenation catalyst to convert at least a portion of the cyclohexane to benzene and at least a portion of the methylcyclopentane to linear and/or branched paraffins and form a second effluent stream. The benzene-rich stream and the second effluent stream can then be recycled to the hydroalkylation step. However, one problem with this process is that cyclohexane and methylcyclopentane have similar boiling points to that of benzene so that their separation by conventional distillation is difficult.
Another solution is proposed in International Patent Publication No. WO2009/131769, in which benzene undergoes hydroalkylation in the presence of a first catalyst to produce a first effluent stream containing cyclohexylbenzene, cyclohexane, and unreacted benzene. The first effluent stream is then divided into a cyclohexylbenzene-rich stream and a C6 product stream comprising cyclohexane and benzene. At least part of said C6 product stream is then contacted with a second catalyst under dehydrogenation conditions to convert at least part of the cyclohexane to benzene and produce a second effluent stream which comprises benzene and hydrogen and which can be recycled to the hydroalkylation step.
Both of the processes disclosed in U.S. Pat. No. 7,579,511 and WO2009/131769 rely on the use of a dehydrogenation catalyst comprising a Group VIII metal on a porous inorganic support such as aluminum oxide, silicon oxide, titanium oxide, zirconium oxide, activated carbon and combinations thereof. However, in practice, such a dehydrogenation catalyst has only limited activity for the conversion of methylcyclopentane and in some instances can undergo rapid aging. There is therefore a need for an improved catalyst for removing cyclohexane and methylcyclopentane from the benzene recycle streams employed in benzene hydroalkylation processes.
According to the present invention, it has now been found that acidic molecular sieves containing at least one dehydrogenation metal are effective catalysts for the dehydrogenation of cyclohexane to benzene and methylcyclopentane to linear and/or branched paraffins in benzene-containing and other hydrocarbon streams in that they exhibit high activity for the conversion of both five- and six-membered non-aromatic rings and yet have a relatively low aging rate.